by Mike Ryan
“What now?”
“Well, looks like we’re done here. Head back to the hotel and I’ll follow.”
“OK. Hey, thanks.”
Thrower smiled. “My pleasure. Just glad I was here to help.”
“I still think you’re a little crazy taking on all four at once, though.”
Thrower laughed. “Hey, I’ve got a pretty good idea what I’m doing by this point. They don’t call me The Bodyguard for nothing.” Thrower jogged back to his car, then followed Mia back to the hotel.
As they drove, Mia sent Recker a text, letting him know what happened, but making sure she told him that she was OK. Recker rushed back to the hotel as soon as he heard from Mia, getting there within twenty minutes. As soon as he walked into the room, she rushed over to him and hugged him. Recker gave her a kiss, then noticed Thrower sitting there on a chair. It looked like he had a small white bandage on his forearm.
“You all right?”
Thrower looked up at him. “Oh, yeah, nothing but a scratch. Think a piece of glass must’ve nicked me. No big deal.”
“Thanks. Thanks for being there.”
“Hey, that’s what you pay me for, right?”
“Yeah, well, Mia told me what you did. Not everyone would intentionally go into a situation like that. Some might say forget it and run in the other direction.”
Thrower shrugged. It really wasn’t a big deal to him. It was just the way he was wired. He couldn’t remember a time he ever flinched or second guessed going into a situation. Especially one in which he was paid. Once he took a job in protecting someone, he was going to do it to the best of his ability. It didn’t matter how big the odds, how scary the situation, or who he was up against. None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was protecting his client. That’s the only way he looked at it.
“Well, like I told Mia, I’m just glad I was there to help.”
Recker looked at Mia and gave her another hug, keeping his arm around her. “You know, I have to say, not that I didn’t exactly trust everything I’d heard or read about you…”
Thrower smiled, already anticipating where he was going. “But you were still a little skeptical?”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“Believe me, you wouldn’t be the first.”
“Well, I can see now it was unwarranted.”
“It’s all good.”
“I wish it was,” Recker said. “Unfortunately, I doubt they’re going to go quietly into the night after this.”
“I know it. You can bet they’re gonna come again.”
“The bad thing is now you’re not an unknown. Next time, they’re gonna plan for you.”
Thrower didn’t seem especially concerned. “Yeah, but I figure this incident has set them back a little. They’ll take a few more days, a week, something like that to think of something else, or try something else.”
“Hopefully by that time I’ll have a better idea of where or who they are.”
Thrower nodded. “And if you don’t… I’ll be ready for them.”
Recker sighed. “Yeah, but the idea isn’t to keep throwing Mia, or you, out there to be target practice. I don’t want either of you to go through this every other day. Because if they keep trying it, eventually they’ll succeed. They’ll just keep throwing out more numbers until they do.”
Thrower shook his head. “Don’t matter how many numbers they throw at us. They’re not getting by me.”
15
Vincent came out of the restaurant after having a meeting with some people he was thinking about doing business with. He was led to his car, surrounded by his usual guards, with Malloy leading the way. Suddenly, shots rang out. A couple of the guards went down. Vincent did as well. Chaos ensued as everyone started running around, trying to figure out where the shots were coming from.
Another car raced in, seemingly from nowhere. The windows rolled down, rifles emerged, and another barrage of bullets were sprayed everywhere. Half a dozen of Vincent’s men were on the ground, never to get up again. The others had scurried behind cars and started to return fire.
In what seemed like a blink of an eye, everything was quiet again. The guns had stopped firing; the car raced away, and there wasn’t an enemy in sight. Malloy stood up from behind the safety of a car and looked around. With nothing to shoot at, he turned around, observing several of his friends on the concrete. Seeing Vincent not moving among them, he scurried over to him.
“Vincent!” Malloy put his hands on him, and Vincent suddenly opened his eyes. “You OK, boss?”
Vincent cleared his throat several times. “Yes. I think so. Help me to my feet.”
Malloy helped his boss get up, then escorted him to his car, and opened the back door. Malloy gave him a push inside, then motioned to the remaining men to get in their cars to get out of there in a hurry. Once the driver of Vincent’s car got in, Malloy tapped the roof of the car.
“Get us out of here!”
Malloy jumped in the back seat with his boss, and started to check for his wounds. Vincent pushed his hands away.
“I’m OK.”
“Are you sure?” Malloy asked.
“Yes. Just… took the wind out of me for a minute.”
“Did you get hit?”
Vincent put his hands on his chest, and took a deep breath. “It’s a good thing you persuaded me to wear this vest for a while.”
“Well, I’m just glad you listened. With everything that’s been going on, I figured it was only a matter of time before they took their shot at you.”
Vincent kept his hand on his chest and let out a grin. He blew air out of his mouth. “And they certainly did. I’m just thankful they didn’t aim at my head.” He then let out a laugh. “That’s too big of a target to miss.”
Malloy smiled, then took a look behind them through the back window. “Looks like we’re clear now.”
Vincent’s mind immediately went to his men. “How many did we lose back there?”
“I’m not sure. At least five or six. I don’t know. Everything was a little chaotic. I just wanted to make sure I got you out of there before they tried a second wave.”
“Now we have to figure out who’s responsible for this. Jerrick? The Scorpions? Or some other fool?”
“My money’s on The Scorpions.”
“Why?”
“They’re hot right now. They take out a couple Silencers, they’re feeling good about themselves, now they wanna take it to another level.”
Vincent nodded. “Perhaps. Nevertheless, put our contacts out on it just to make sure.”
“Does it even matter? They’re both on our list, anyway.”
“Whoever it is becomes our top priority. I don’t want to waste time looking for one opponent, when the other one, who we should be fighting, is right up our backside. I think your hunch is probably a good one. But let’s verify it first before we break out the big guns.”
“I’ll get the word out right away.” Malloy pulled out his phone and started sending messages.
“Did you happen to see if any of our new business partners were caught in the exchange?”
Malloy shook his head. “Really didn’t notice.”
Vincent sighed. “It’d be a shame to lose them already. Could cost us millions over the next year.”
“Even if that’s so, we can pick up someone else later.”
“True. But that’s money lost in our pockets right now. You know as well as I do it takes time to set these arrangements up, to do background work, build some trust. If they’re out of the picture, it’s valuable time and money lost. We can’t get that back.”
“We’ll be OK.”
Vincent agreed. “Yes, we should be. As long as we don’t take an errant bullet in the back somewhere along the way.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of them.”
“It might be wise if you checked in with our friend, Mr. Recker, at some point today, see if he’s picked up anything yet.”
“I will. If he does, might be a good idea if we work together to set something up. Lure these bastards in and take them out.”
Vincent nodded. “Yes. But first we must find them. Right now, they have the advantage. We have to turn that advantage around.”
“We will. They’re on borrowed time.”
Recker walked into the office, finding Jones at his usual spot behind the desk. Jones, armed with the information on Vincent’s attack, immediately spun his chair around to greet him as soon as he walked in.
“Have you heard the news?”
Recker stopped. “We finally put a man on the moon?”
“Hardly. Vincent was attacked about two hours ago.”
“What?”
“Outside a restaurant. Several of his men were killed.”
“Where’d you hear about this?”
“It’s all over the news.”
“What about Vincent?”
“As far as I can tell, he’s fine.”
“Malloy?”
“Not one of the casualties.”
“Who’s responsible?” Recker asked.
“I don’t know. If I had to take a guess, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he’s been hit after us.”
“The Scorpions.”
Jones nodded. “We did team up together to rid them the first time.”
“Now they’re back for revenge on all of us.”
“So it would appear.”
“We gotta find these guys. And we gotta find them fast before they try another attack on somebody.”
“Speaking of attacks, are you sure it’s wise to let Mia return to work today after what happened yesterday? And with this news about Vincent?”
“She’ll be fine today.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because you don’t just wake up today and say, ‘hey, let’s go take out a nurse at the hospital’. It takes planning. They planned for yesterday, it went haywire, now it’ll take a few more days to figure out something else. Especially with Thrower involved. He was a wrinkle. Wrinkles take time to figure out.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am. Believe me, if I had any doubts about it, do you think I wouldn’t be over there right now? Besides, with this news, they obviously were focused on Vincent today. That was their plan for now.”
“Now that was a failure too. They might ramp their efforts up.”
“I don’t know if killing a few of Vincent’s men could be classified as a failure.”
“It is if you’re aiming for the top man.”
“True. They’ll most likely be quiet for a day or two, though. Regroup and figure out who and where they wanna hit next.”
Jones nodded. “Not exactly something to look forward to.”
“No, it’s not. You hear anything about Chris today?”
“Still no change.”
Recker sighed and pounded his right fist into his left hand. He was hoping for some good news for a change. He sat down next to Jones, and was about to go on a computer, when his phone rang. Seeing it was Tyrell, he had hope that it was a sign that good news was about to come.
“Tell me you got something.”
“You know it, man,” Tyrell replied. “Did you hear about what happened to Vincent today?”
“Yeah, I just heard the news.”
“Well, I got word from one of my guys that a vehicle matching the description of a car that happened to be in the area of that incident just pulled into an apartment complex.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. You think I’d be telling you this if I wasn’t sure?”
“Maybe.”
“Well I would, but I’d be telling you I don’t know how legit it is.”
“And this is?”
“One hundred percent. This is the real deal.”
“How do you know?”
“Listen, there were four guys in the car, right?”
“I have no idea.”
“OK, well, there was. Anyway, one of the guys that got out and went into this apartment had a sleeveless tank top on.”
“Aren’t all tank tops sleeveless?”
“I dunno. Are they?”
“I thought they were.”
“Hmm. I’m not sure. Anyway, we’re getting off topic here. Apparently, one of the guys had this tank top on, and the dude had a tattoo on his back. You know what that tattoo was?”
“A scorpion?”
“Ding ding ding. You’re the lucky winner.”
“What do I get?”
“A date with some violence.”
“I’ll take it. You do any other digging on this?”
“I just got the tip a few minutes ago. I know how hot this is, so I called right away. Haven’t done anything other than call you.”
“OK, shoot me a text with the address when we’re done.”
“You got it. You worried about something? What other digging do you need?”
“Whether or not that apartment complex has got fifty other Scorpions living in it.”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“Taking out four isn’t so good if there’s a few dozen more right behind them that I don’t know about.”
“Yeah, true that.”
“All right, dig a little further while I’m on my way there. I’ll have David start on it too.”
“You got it. Might take a few minutes, though, I gotta call Vincent about this too.”
“Why?”
“Hey, as soon as that stuff went down today, I got a message from Malloy right away, telling me he wanted to hear anything I could get. Now, you’re my man, you know that, but, if they hear I’m giving you information that I’m not giving them, especially when they’re asking for it, that could be a problem, you know? Especially when it’s something that involves them and is hot.”
Recker wasn’t keen on sharing the same information, from the same source, with Vincent. But he understood Tyrell’s position. “No, it’s fine.”
“I mean, if whatever just happened only involved you, I wouldn’t be telling them nothing. You know that. But when they’re the guys that just got jumped, and they’re asking, how’s it gonna look if I tell you and not them? Especially Vincent and Malloy, man, you know they ain’t playing.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s fine. I just hope they don’t get there before I do.”
“Why? What’s the rush?”
“Maybe I can find something out before they show up.”
“Like what?”
“Like anything.”
“I’d think you’d want as much help as you can get with these clowns.”
“Normally, I’d say yes. But when we’re looking for as much information as I can get, I say no.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Because there’s still a lot we don’t know right now, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, if Malloy and company get there before I do, they might do some things that they shouldn’t. Because of what just happened, they’re probably pretty pissed off, and probably not in the right frame of mind. That means, they’re gonna go in there, guns blazing.”
“So?”
“So I’d like to get there first, maybe keep one of them alive in hopes they can tell me something.”
“Well, what makes you think they won’t do that too?”
“Like I said, they’re pissed off because of what happened. They probably have revenge on the brain and are gonna kill them the moment they see them.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because that’s exactly what I would do.”
“Oh. Well I’ll take your word for it. I’ll let you go then so you can get moving. Hope you get there first.”
“So do I.”
16
With having no time to spare, Recker immediately left to get to that apartment complex that Tyrell told him about. Waiting for David to do some research on if there were other members of The Scorpions livi
ng there wasn’t really an option. If there were, Recker would deal with that problem when he ran into it. For right now, he just wanted to get there ahead of Vincent’s men.
Recker assumed that Malloy would be leading the charge, since he was usually the guy that Vincent sent out for the important tasks. That could mean any number of things, but the main one was that Malloy didn’t always see the bigger picture. If he saw Scorpions, he was probably shooting with his first, second, and third options. Asking questions or trying to get additional information would probably come in fourth or fifth on that list.
That was the main issue with Malloy. He was too lethal. Especially when he set his sights on terminating someone. He usually didn’t deviate from that plan. And after what happened earlier that day, there was no doubt in Recker’s mind that Malloy wasn’t taking prisoners. Not unless Vincent ordered him to.
After hitting some traffic, Recker finally arrived at the apartments that The Scorpions were supposed to be in. It took him about thirty minutes to get there. It didn’t take him long to see a few familiar cars already parked that he wished he didn’t see.
Recker parked his vehicle, then got out of the car. He walked to the front and just leaned on the hood with his back. He folded his arms, waiting for Malloy and his men to get out. He already knew he was too late to do what he wanted. Now he just needed the status report.
It didn’t take long. Less than a few minutes later, a few of Vincent’s men came walking out the main door to the building. They noticed Recker standing there, and gave him a nod and a wave. Recker grinned at them, barely moving his hand to wave back. Malloy trailed the others and was the last one out. He also noticed Recker, and walked over to him.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
“Same thing you are,” Recker answered.
“Well, looks like we saved you the trouble.”
Recker nodded. “I figured as much. How many?”
“Four.”
“They’re the ones in the car?”
“Yeah, seems like it.”
“Get any information out of them?”
“We didn’t exactly have time for a chat,” Malloy replied.
It played out just as Recker expected it would. No new information learned. No survivors. “Any others living here?”
